Willard Sterne Randall is een Amerikaanse historicus en auteur, gespecialiseerd in biografieën over de Amerikaanse koloniale periode en de Amerikaanse Revolutie. Zijn werk duikt in de sleutelfiguren en cruciale momenten die de geboorte van de natie hebben gevormd. Randall onderzoekt meesterlijk de motivaties en contexten die de revolutie aanwakkerden, en biedt lezers een boeiend perspectief op dit vormende tijdperk. Zijn wetenschap biedt onschatbare inzichten in de fundamentele ervaringen van de Verenigde Staten.
The book delves into Thomas Jefferson's complex character, revealing insights into his philosophical beliefs, political motivations, and personal life. By utilizing firsthand scholarship and the Jefferson Papers, Randall investigates Jefferson's views on slavery and his controversial relationship with Sally Hemmings. Additionally, the narrative explores Jefferson's public and private challenges during pivotal moments in American history, including Revolutionary and diplomatic affairs, providing a nuanced portrait of this influential figure.
Exploring the intersection of personal finance and politics, this book delves into how the financial situations of the Founding Fathers influenced the creation of the Constitution and the foundations of the United States. It highlights the economic challenges they faced and how their financial decisions impacted the nation's early governance and policies, providing a unique perspective on the historical context of America's formation.
In the first full, one-volume biography of Alexander Hamilton in more than two decades, award-winning historian Willard Sterne Randall takes a fresh look at one of the most brilliant, conflicted, and elusive of our nation's founders. Orphaned at thirteen and apprenticed in a counting house, the precocious Hamilton learned principles of business that helped him, as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury, to create the American banking system and invent the modern corporation. But first the staunch, intrepid Hamilton served in the American Revolution, primarily as aide-de-camp to General Washington, acting as Washington's spymaster. Forging a successful legal career, Hamilton coauthored The Federalist Papers and plunged into politics. Irresistibly attractive to women, he was a man of many gifts, but he could be arrogant and was at times a poor judge of character. In this meticulously researched, illuminating, and lively account, Willard Sterne Randall mines the latest scholarship to provide a new perspective on Alexander Hamilton, his illegitimate birth, little-known military activities, political and diplomatic intrigues, and sometimes scandalous private life. From his less than auspicious start in 1755 on the Caribbean island of Nevis to his untimely death in a duel with his old enemy Aaron Burr in 1804, Alexander Hamilton, despite his short and tragic life, left a huge legacy.
